March 26, 2013

Today the United States Supreme Court heard arguments on California’s Prop 8 (or, as some refer to it, Prop Hate), which bans marriage equality for same-sex couples in the state. To true advocates of human and civil rights, marriage is a fundamental right that ALL consenting adults must have. Recognizing that basic human right are eleven countries (Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, and Sweden), several sub-national jurisdictions in Brazil and Mexico, and nine states in the USA (Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and Washington), plus the District of Columbia, plus three tribal jurisdictions (Coquille Tribe/Oregon, Suquamish Tribe/Washington, and Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians/Michigan). Same-sex marriage laws are proposed and pending in many countries and jurisdictions throughout the world.

In June 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to announce their decision from today’s arguments. May they decide on the right side of history, and all adult citizens of the United States will finally enjoy the freedom to marry. And the marriage of the women pictured below (who were together for 32 years when they legally married in New York in 2011) will be recognized throughout the entire United States.

The first same-sex couple to be married in Westchester County, New York, on July 24, 2011, the day New York State’s Marriage Equality Law went into effect.